Business & Technology, Politics, and Random Posts from the Left, Right, and Elsewhere
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Overall rank: 26778 Number of inbound blogs: 167 Number of incoming links: 177 ATOM: ATOM feed Author: Bernard Moon Last update: 2007-06-08 09:43:59 GMT Estimated value: $119,930
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Revisiting Milgram's Experiment and the Psychology of Evil
I came across this article at CNN, "Charting the psychology of evil, decades after 'shock' experiment," which revisits Stanley Milgram's famous "shock" experiment. Professor Jerry Burger at Santa Clara University recently replicated Milgram's experiment with some tweaks to reflect updates in ethical standards for human subjects:
The new results correlate well with Milgram's: 70 percent of the 40 participants were willing to continue after 150 volts, compared with 82.5 percent in Milgram's study -- a difference that is not statistically significant, Burger said.
Still, some psychologists quoted in the same issue of American Psychologist questioned how comparable this study is to Milgram's, given the differences in methods.
Still deep in diaperland and adjusting to this new life :) Also trying to get back into the groove of work again... and blogging and linking. So apologies for missing the past three days, which is probably the longest dry spell I've had since 2007.
"Time to Reboot America" by Thomas Friedman "Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin" by John O'Sullivan Palin can be a national figure for the Republican Party, but I don't think she has the capacity to be president of our nation. I just want someone that doesn't have to be handled and protected. A leader with the intellectual and oratory skills to go at it alone. This is a basic requirement that shouldn't be asked of our national leaders.
"Second, this absolutely would ruin one of the most compelling things about Twitter: That it's completely democratic. If you want to know what someone has to say on a topic, follow them, no need to have their opinions forced in everyone's face because they are "more authoritative," that's subjective. Dave Winer and Jeremiah Owyang have the right idea for this: Make an option to search for topic within the people you follow...
But the reasons people are bitching about it so much is because Le Meur's actually onto something that is in fact a growing problem on Twitter (too much noise), but he proposes a solution without thinking it through."
"World Rallies Around Palestinians"... Anti-Zionist CNN?
Sorry about the light blogging. Holidays and busy with our twins the past couple days...
Sure CNN is a bit left-leaning, but I didn't know it was part of the leftwing, anti-Israel faction that Jimmy Carter and some other Democrats are a part of.
WSJ's James Taranto has a good commentary on this:
"... The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the world's population at around 6.75 billion. By our back-of-the-envelope calculation, the protesters in CNN's report accounts for roughly one-millionth of that number, and about half of them are in countries ruled by autocracies that use anti-Semitism as a tool to preserve their power.
Yet the network headlines the story "World Rallies Around Palestinians Amid Gaza Offensive." This is an enormous exaggeration. Or maybe it is a small world after all."
JellyTelly's Online Christmas Videos... New Media Startup By VeggieTales Founder
HatTip to Alexa. For you parents out there...
JellyTelly Labs is a new media startup founded by VeggieTales creator, Phil Vischer. Targeting 5 to 10 year olds, their mission is to help the "next generation build a faith-based, value-rich foundation for life" while working on various new Christian family media projects.
Their video technology partner is Ooyala, which was co-founded by three former Google employees. Ooyala's technology allowed JellyTelly to create their own "mini-network" and provided an integrated solution for the delivery and management of their videos.
Benjamin Wallace's entertaining, amusing and somewhat insightful presentation. About this talk Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world's most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.
About Benjamin Wallace A Washington D.C. native and a current Brooklynite, Benjamin Wallace is fast establishing himself a master of the brainy nonfiction thriller, rooting up feuds and controversies in pop and less-than-pop culture while buddying up with their embattled and larger-than-life personalities (whom he sometimes meets on their way down). He profiled conserative mouthpiece Glenn Beck for GQ in 2007 shortly after the pundit landed a controversial slot on CNN, and in 2002 looked at chef Georges Perrier of Philidelphia's then-five-star restaurant, Le Bec-Fin. (full bio)
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Best wishes to all of you, your family and friends!
Last year, I limited my predictions to the U.S. market. But the global economic meltdown has made the world flatter — and landed our nation flat broke. So to keep things interesting, I’ll extend my prognostication across borders.
I was playing with the idea of titling this column “Top Ten Tech Bailouts for 2009″ or “DeathCrunch: 2009,” but thought it best to keep our VentureBeat readers in high spirits (what with the holiday cheer and all). So without further ado, here are my top global trends to watch for the new year:
PC and online gaming continue healthy growth
There is no better indicator of this than World of Warcraft’s Wrath of the Lich King’s first-day sale of 2.8 million copies in mid-November. At $40 each, this accounts for $112 million, an astounding figure. I imagine the folks at Blizzard Entertainment had a pretty nice holiday party — drinking eggnog and munching on gingerbread cookies, macaroons and Turkish Delight to their hearts’ content…
And it’s not just the geeks keeping this segment of the market afloat either. Remember Swingers? Solid proof that cool, hip, unemployed men (and there will be many more of them) tend to play a lot of games.
But does this mean that all video game companies are recession-proof? Will that many more people opt for lazy, relatively inexpensive entertainment over going out? Not really. The NPD Group, a leading consumer market research firm, recently issued a report showing a dip in the overall video game market. October saw an 18 percent increase over sales from last year, but November’s sales were only up 10 percent. So the downturn is in fact taking a toll.
Console sales — which made up $9.4 billion of the $18.9 billion gaming industry in 2007 (according to the Entertainment Software Association) — will take a major hit. How many people will be willing to drop a few hundred bucks on a console? Plus $50 more for a game easily finished in a few days or weeks? That’s a lot to ask in the current environment. Even perennial favorites like Rock Band and Wii Fit will probably trend down due to expensive accessories.
PC and online gaming account for only 9.5 percent of total gaming sales ($9.5 billion). But the segment has the strongest prospects for growth. MMORPGs (massively-multiplayer online role-playing games) and others with multi-dimensional interaction options provide continuous character development, storylines and gameplay that bring you into contact with likeminded others. This gives them longevity and makes them worthier of that initial investment.
Video game makers should take note: Titles that deliver more value over a longer period of time will bring in more money during tough times — and that’s exactly what PC and online games do.
Surface computing slowly breaks into the mainstream
Traditional mouse and keyboard setups will start to be replaced by touch-sensitive screens that allow users to control functions with their fingertips. Hewlett-Packard’s TouchSmart PC is just the beginning.
I’m far from becoming a Microsoft fan, but Microsoft Surface is an important step forward for this technology, which will only become more pervasive in the next year. And Microsoft isn’t the only player in the game. As a TEDster, I have to plug Jeff Han’s multi-touch interface (see video below). All the while, Innotive, a company I advised, offers very cool interactive display technology.
The novelty of surface computing has led Microsoft into partnerships with Sheraton Hotels, Disney and Harrah’s Casino Hotels. These resorts have installed touch screens in their lobbies to provide local information and media tailored to their customers’ needs. The technology may only be mindly entertaining for now, but it provides substantial practical value. With the ubiquity of the iPhone, multi-touch screens are becoming increasingly intuitive, and already feel more natural than typing on a keypad in some settings. Say, for example, you are presented with a multi-touch screen as a menu in a restaurant — one click with your finger orders your meal.
But there’s even more potential in the boardroom with smart white boards becoming a reality. Imagine all the graphic facilitation geeks in your office suddenly gaining the ability to map out their ideas with just their hands? Joyous pandemonium! Dry-erase marker bonfires amid hearty rounds of Kumbaya! (At least that’s how I picture it.)
Shift from offline to online ad spend picks up speed
Advertising goliath GroupM projects that global ad spend will decrease by 0.2 percent to $458 billion in 2009 — dropping 3.2 percent to $157 billion in the U.S. alone. But I think online ad spend is a different story, and should see slow but steady growth. After all, eMarketer forecasts an 8.8 percent increase in online ad spend from $23.6 to $25.7 billion in 2009, and a 10.8 percent increase in 2010.
What will drive this growth? In short, more advertisers waking up to smell the recession. Newspapers make up only 5 percent of Americans’ media diet, yet they consume 30 percent of ad dollars. A report from Morgan Stanley last month revealed that, last year, advertisers spent $288 per home on internet advertising and $818 per home on newspaper ads. There’s something wrong with that picture when “death spiral” is the phrase usually ascribed to the state of print journalism. And more brands are starting to realize it — newspaper advertising has dropped 18 percent (about $2 billion) from this quarter last year. Innovation increasingly imported from Asia
For the time being, the U.S. leads in R&D worldwide with 35 percent of the total output. China comes in second with 16 percent, and Japan in third with 13 percent — but both are catching up fast. The money is there, no doubt. It’s the culture of creativity and entrepreneurship that will really give these countries the boost they need. Innovation and idea generation are fairly strong in Japan and Korea, and have been picking up in China and India due to improving education and a reverse diaspora. Taking these factors into account, Asia is clearly poised to overtake the west in technological achievement in the coming decade.
As a student of Czech economist Joseph Schumpeter and Columbia University’s Richard Nelson, I believe that this type of achievement is the primary driver for long-term economic growth. With its workforce dominating engineering, its growing entrepreneurial spirit and its hunger for knowledge, Asia is positioning itself as the world’s primary economic engine — with the potential to reign indefinitely.
Regardless, the U.S. will maintain its leadership in innovation through the end of next year, but perhaps not long after that. Will Asia’s brute strength in the tech arena outweigh cultural, legal and policy limitations?
This is a question not just for 2009, but the next five or even ten years. For now, these are my predictions for the year ahead. Do you agree? What global trends do you taking hold in 2009 and beyond?
Cool.Asia... Finding and Reviewing What's Cool in Asia
Randomly got emailed about Cool.Asia, which seems to be gunning to become the "Yelp of Asia." It's a review site that needs some UI work and a better design, but it definitely fills a gap needed in the market.
I'm a fan of Yelp and have been hoping they would expand to cities outside of the U.S. sooner than later. TripAdvisor's review feature is the primary destination for such reviews and it's decent but an alternative would be nice.
"CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory 'Arrogant'" He had to recant the next day stating that “the globe is getting warmer and humans are the likely the main cause of it.” Oh the pressures of working at CNN and not allowed to have your own thoughts.
Unethical, Shady Huffington Post
Are you surprised? Huffington strikes me as an opportunistic person with a very self-centered nature, so her company's culture wouldn't be the most ethical. But this isn't a gray area since they are outright stealing content from the Chicago Reader, The Onion and others. More... "Arianna Huffington's Scuzzy Copying Pisses Off Chicagoans" Gawker
The Daily Grommet Beta... Fresh Finds and New Products
The Daily Grommet is a new site that showcases new discoveries, products and services. It's cool because the pitches come directly from the designer, artist or entrepreneur behind the product or services. More from their site...
What's a Grommet
* It’s a wonderful product still waiting in the wings, just ripe for discovery.
* It has great utility, or style, or invention. Or, very often it has all three.
* It comes from a designer, or inventor, or artist, or manufacturer who is clearly passionate about what they create. Someone who loves to share their creations and talk to people about why they do what they do.
* It comes from a company that treats its customers well.
* Finally, like any intelligent or beautiful product, it has a great story, ready to be told.
"Really !?!: Gov. Blagojevich"
Hilarious segment from SNL...
Tabbloid... Turn Your RSS Feeds Into A Magazine
HatTip to Dan. Pretty cool service from HP. Tabbloid is out of their development labs and allows you to create a personalized magazine from your RSS feeds.
Also a great strategic play to get people to print more on their HP printers. Anyway, here is a sample of a "magazine" I generated...
HatTip to Sam. Drop.io isn't new, but new to me since I never tried it until recently. I typically use YouSendIt to send large files to friends or work contacts (free account provides up to 100MB per file). I've tried Drop.io and like the cleaner user-interface and some other features they have, such as integration with Scribd's iPaper. Anyway, a cool file sending and sharing service to check out. More from CrunchBase here.
"The Internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, and every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times.
[…]
Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of free copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies?
I have an answer. The simplest way I can put it is thus:
When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable. When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
Well, what can't be copied?"
Antikythera Mechanism... 2,000 Year Old Greek Computer
Pretty cool. A 2,000 year old Greek computer.
Curator Michael Wright shows off his model of the Antikythera mechanism. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek clockwork machine found in a shipwreck, that has taken more than a century to decipher. Wright's handmade reconstruction is the first to include all the known features of this complex device.
"Chapter 11 is the Right Road for US carmakers"
Excellent op-ed by Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. Sound economic policy not politics. For the Democrats, it's more about saving the UAW than the Big Three. Yes, that's a strong generalization but I stand by it :)
"Lesson of San Diego's Jet Crash"
Good op-ed by my friend, Adrian Hong.
Lesson of San Diego's jet crash Dong Yun Yoon, his family killed in the crash of a Marine jet, reminded everyone of the better angels of our nature.
Dong Yun Yoon lost everything in a manner no one could have predicted or prepared for. Reports indicate a mechanical failure led an F/A-18D Hornet fighter to plow into his San Diego home on Monday, instantly taking the lives of his wife, two young daughters and mother-in-law.
Video taken by bystanders to the accident showed the house destroyed in an inferno of swirling flames and dark smoke. A newly sworn-in San Diego city councilwoman who is a former TV reporter breathlessly divulged the family's name in an on-site report, before authorities had notified Yoon... (full op-ed)
Obama is showing how his political ties can influence his decisions more so than sound policies. Being a Chicago politician, it's very difficult not to succeed without your bread being buttered by unions. Additionally, the Democrats have such historic and deep ties it's probably difficult for Obama to make a clean policy decision on the Big Three automakers and the Republic Windows & Doors situations.
I still don't believe he's opposed to the Big Three going through bankruptcy. This really seems to be a political decision more so than an economic one. If the Big Three go bankrupt, then their companies are restructured with the hope that they can be rebuilt to truly compete. But if they are also restructured, the unions and their members will have a very small seat at the table or possibly none. Politics as usual. Change is coming? Please.
“They’re absolutely right,” Obama, who gave up his U.S. Senate seat from Illinois last month, said over the weekend. “These workers, if they have earned these benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.” Bank of America's response is reasonable:
Bank of America isn’t empowered to tell a company how to manage its business, spokeswoman Julie Westermann said yesterday. Republic is unable to operate profitably in the current economy, she said.
So why would you force a bank to conduct poor lending practices? Poor business decisions? Isn't this what got us into this mess in the first place? I heard Obama as a community activist was working to "encourage" banks in Hyde Park (Chicago) to lower their lending standards so that low-income families could purchase homes that they couldn't afford. Sounds similar, huh? But on who's dollar does this eventually come from? Doesn't sound like change is going to happen.
